Arriving in Urumqi.
Looking at the midline in Janu Sirsasana with Chair and Block.
Practice Uttanasana with a Blanket Roll to soothe the lower back. Drop this into a post-menstrual sequence.
Women municiple workers, clearing the snow.
They do this running.
…still running !
Snowy view, with the mountain range at the top, from the yoga studio.
© 2020 Bobby Clennell.
Yogadandasana. Drawings made from a class taught by Rajlaxmi at RIMYI, Pune.
Adho Mukha Sukhasana. Some students reached forward to the grill.
Sit in Upavista Konasana: extend your ankles toward your heels. Sit on a narrow fold blanket. Fold your legs into Baddha Konasana. Place a narrow brick between the feet.
If necessary, go to the wall and hold the ropes. Turn the brick, first onto its flat side, and then turn it to horizontal. Descend the knees.
Place your feet on top of the brick. Now place a folded mat under the brick.
Now sit on the brick. Remaining on the brick, extend your right leg out to the side. Press the Baddha Konasana knee down and turn that heel up.
Change legs. (If the brick is hard, sit on a vertical bolster). Extend both legs out and return to Upavistha Konasana.
Bend your left leg to Marichyasana position. Turn left toes back. Press arm against bent leg. Change sides. Now move back to Baddha Konasana. Now bend your left leg to Baddha Konasana, right leg to Upavista Konasana. Lift your pelvis, raise your heel and push it forward so you sit on the inner side of the big toe.
Change sides. The students are now on a four-fold sticky mat or vertical bolster or a block. Wedge a brick between heel and pubic bone.
You can come into the pose by sliding down the ropes. To bring your weight to the inner edges of the folded leg big toe, roll forward…
…and now roll forward on both legs. Rajlaxmi came right to the edge of the platform to roll forward even more.
Place the feet on a flat block. Then turn the block onto its tall end. Press the knees down.
Paschimottanasana: if you are stiff separate your legs.
“Yogadandasana means the staff of a Yogin. In this pose, the yogi sits using one leg as a crutch under the armpit, hence the name” BKS Iyengar: Light On Yoga. Bend your right leg back into Virasana. Push your left foot back (see more complete instructions in Light on Yoga).
The pillar was used to support the lifted leg, while the students turned toward the Virasana leg.
The knee of the Baddha Konasana leg has to turn.
Change sides. Forward bends: Janu Sirsasana; Ardha Baddha Paschimottanasana;
Triang Mukha Aika Pada Paschimottanasana; Marichyasana 1.
Paschimottanasana; Malasana; Uttanasana; Adho Mukha Svanasana; Parsvottanasana; Setu Banda Sarvangasana with a Brick and Tadasana legs. Some students used bolsters for Setu Banda. Move the shoulder blades deeper inside the back. Push the shins toward the shoulders, but at the same time, walk out with your legs.
Savasana.
© 2019 Bobby Clennell
Practicing Uttanasana with the legs separated allows for more mobility and a deeper forward extension than when the legs are together.
Practicing Uttanasana with the legs together compresses the abdominal area against the thighs (except where the student has tight hamstrings, and the trunk moves away from the thighs). This massages the abdominals, and helps keep the area healthy.
Tadasana. To ensure that the abdominal organs move up, roll the tops of the thighs back and take the tailbone in.
Uttitha Trikonasana. Revolve the tops of the femur bones out at the sockets. This ensures that the thigh bones will move into the sockets in a healthy way.
Rope Sirsasana. To ensure a deep internal alignment of the abdominal organs, make sure the belt is place exactly on the sacral bone.
Parsvakonasana. Similarly to Trikonasana, turn the tops of the thighs out.
Ardha Chandrasana. Turn the trunk and pelvis away from the standing leg. Can you touch the lifted leg shoulder blade and buttock to the wall?
Parsva Upavista Konasana. Turn from the navel toward the front leg. Everything below the navel is influenced by the activation of the left foot — press out through the left foot big toe mound.
Sirsasana. To avoid eye pressure, be exactly on the center of the crown of the head. Press the forearms down. Lift the shoulders.
Chatush Padasana over a chair. Raise the pelvic area off the chair, and placing the trapezius on the front edge of the chair, curve it around the edge of the chair. The upper back/shoulder skin will get dragged away from the head and area just below the collar-bones will open.
Supta Konasana/Chair Halasana. This gives low back relief. It’s also a better way to go for those with long spines, where it’s not so easy to climb through the chair.
Coming out of Viparita Dandasana over Crossed Bolsters. Allow the lower back to spread.
Bolster Supported Setu Bandasana. Make sure the shoulders just touch the floor (and that you haven’t slid too far off the bolster).
© 2019 Bobby Clennell
Adho Mukha Svanasana with arms back and block and belt.
Utana Baddha Konasana. This pose is particularly effective in creating space around lung and breast tissue. This pose features in my book, Yoga For Breast Care: what every woman needs to know.
I am coiling myself around the block, and getting ready….
…to hold onto a handy pair of ankles.
Sarvangasana. Roll your outer shoulders under. Press the outer/upper artms down and extend from outer shoulders to outer elbows. With the palms facing the floor, and the thumbs and forefingers separated, press the hands sharply between two ribs, and lift the back ribs. Clip the outer shoulderblades in.
Halasana. External rotation of the arms at the sockets. Iift from the inner groins.
© 2019 Bobby Clennell
We began the class with Parvritta Swastikasana.
Uttanasana with Head on Block.
Adho Mukha Svanasana. Stand facing the wall with the rope slipped around your waist. Step over both sides of the rope with one leg, and then turn around to face away from the wall. Slide the knot down onto your sacrum. Bend your knees and fold forward into Adho Mukha Svanasana. Keep your heels at the wall and as close to the floor as you can. Reach your hands forward. The rope extends the lumbar spine toward the wall, while the hands draw the spine forward. These opposing movements extend the lumbar, decrease compression of the disc on the nerves and reduce low back pain. Turn toes in.
Working with a block between her hyper extended elbows helped reduce the pain in her arms that occured whenever she did this pose.
Salabhasana on the ropes.
Uttitha Hasta Padangustasana 1, with Back to The Wall and Pully Ropes.
Uttitha Hasta Padangustasana 2, with Back to The Wall and Pully Ropes.
Standing Twist to Wall with Pully Ropes.
My host, Rany Fetrix made t-shirts from my drawing.
© 2019 Bobby Clennell
Bharadvajasana. To turn to your left, lift your front spine. Pin your right hip down, press your right back ribs forward toward your right breast and move them away from your spine.
Ardha Chandrasana. On the left side, pin your left shoulder-blade and left buttock deep into the body, and turn the entire torso up away from the standing leg.
Uttanasana: Standing with the legs apart allows you to rest in the pose. Doing this pose with the feet together helps strengthen the internal pelvic organs.
Dandasana with a belt.
Salabhasana: when the torso is heavy and hard to lift, place a rolled blanket under the abdomen. Wind a belt three times around the wrists, pull the arms back and lift the chest.
Dhanurasana: Lift your thighs off the floor and push your shins back until the front ribs are also raised up off the floor.
Urdhva Dhanurasana: Support this pose from your arms and legs, and do not initiate coming into the pose from your spine: Drive your heels into the floor, pull the backs of the thighs up toward the buttock crease. Roll the tailbone away from the waist and press it up. Press your hands down, revolve your upper arms in toward your head and neck, and pull the shoulder blades away from your neck and forward into your chest.
Beautiful entertainments.
These are the organizers. Take a bow ladies!
© 2017 Bobby Clennell.
Workshop at Yoga Estudio Granada in Spain.
Parivritta Sukasana at the wall. Before you rotate, first lift your front spine to the maximum.
This modification of Adho Mukha Svanasana with feet on blocks teaches us how to fold at the hips without rounding the back. Don’t be in a hurry to teach your body the language of Iyengar Yoga. It takes patience and persistent practice. Workshops give us an opportunity to work with partners.
Uttanasana with the head up, arms in Paschima Baddhanguliyasana, and chin supported. The helpers are not forcing the arms, just supporting.
Supported Janu Sirsasana with wall and bolster support. Align the center, mid line of the torso with the mid line of the head.
Sarvangasana with Chair Support. Pick up your shoulders and roll them back one-at-a-time and press your shoulder-blades into your back so that the breast bone comes to an upright position.
Granada is without a doubt, one of the prettiest places I have ever visited.
The local gypsies had traditionally lived in caves in the mountains surrounding Granada.
This spirited performance….
….was performed in a restaurant/theatre that was a renovated cave, dug deep into the rock.
© 2016 Bobby Clennell.
These kids are serious yoga students!
Ivan Zabrodina, visiting us in Swanage, Dorset, UK, is carefully studying the poses in my book Watch Me Do Yoga. Soon he’ll be able to assist his mother Julia Zabrodina who teaches Iyengar yoga in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Utthita Hasta Padasana (Upright Hands and Feet Pose).
Adho Mukha Vriksasana (Tree Pose).
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose).
Simhasana (Lion Pose).
You are never too young to start practicing. Nuala, daughter of jewelry designer Maeve Gillies, is almost two and already into yoga.
Urdhva Hastasana (Arms Above the Head Pose) from Tadasana (Mountain pose). Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend Pose) with hands in Paschima Baddangullyasana (Hands Interlaced Behind the Back Pose).
Nicole de Jesus sent these photos of her five-year-old niece Malaya (“Freedom”), along with this note:
“I gave my amazing niece Malaya, a copy of Watch Me Do Yoga. She is already quite the student…and her toys seem to be benefiting from the method already!
Malaya is going through your book again and again. She’s going to bring it to her yoga class at school!
She and the animals practiced Bobby’s entire yoga book in my living room. Now she wants to make a yoga movie…!”
Kurmasana (Tortoise Pose).
Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose).
We are looking at a row of Malaya’s toys practicing some inversions.
Urdhva Dhanurasana (Bow Pose).
Maybe I’ll have her on my publicity team!
Meanwhile, Kaira, in Hangzhou, China has also been hard at work. Her mother Carmen, a yoga teacher in Hangzhou, writes:
“I just received Watch Me Do Yoga yesterday from Amazon, and my daughter Kaira just loved it. She was reading the book the whole morning, and insisted me teaching her all the asanas from the book”.
Vriksasana (Tree Pose).
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose).
Simhasana (Lion Pose).
Kaira is holding the book perfectly straight!
Text © 2015 Bobby Clennell. Photos used with permission.
Kids sometimes have their own unique and interesting ways of working with props. Thanks to everyone who has sent me photos of their kids who were inspired by my book, Watch Me Do Yoga; please keep sending them in.
From Ann Van Regan in Ottawa does yoga with her 5-year-old grand-daughter, Darrah Boudreau: “Using a strap in Paschimottanasana. Elbows high.”
“Janu Sirsasana… needs to flex her foot. She’s enjoying learning to open her chest.”
Older sister Padmé Boudreau “after seeing a pic of one of Sri Iyengar.”
22-month-old Adrian Wells from Ottawa doesn’t need to run to get blocks when he practices Uttanasana — he uses the floor. Photo by his mother, Christine Benedict.
Ann Van Regan’s grand-daughter has an interesting way of working with blocks. She “likes to bring out every prop when she comes to visit. She makes long paths that meander from my yoga space int the kitchen. Little yogini’s get hungry. This is her version of Savasana… a bit hard on the neck, but comfy on the foam blocks.”
We use props to help us achieve the pose. Or the couch.
“Mama, can I help you?” Valerie Chai is helped by her 6-year-old son, Min. Valerie teaches at Maha Yoga, Kuching (near Kampong Tabuan), Malaysia.
And sometimes the only prop you need is a helping hand from a friend.
Bobby Clennell 